


That lockdown Vault fic you all expected from me

by Madam_Violet



Series: The Vault Chronicles [34]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, References to lungbarrow, The Vault (Doctor Who), ThoscheiLockdown2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:48:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23564050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madam_Violet/pseuds/Madam_Violet
Summary: I'm still stuck in lockdown, so I thought I might use my time purposefully ^.^ !When a Time Lord killing virus suddenly appears out of nowhere, there is no other solution than to lock the Doctor down in the Vault with Missy and wait.
Relationships: Twelfth Doctor & Missy
Series: The Vault Chronicles [34]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/880992
Comments: 12
Kudos: 24





	That lockdown Vault fic you all expected from me

It all started with a few students calling sick. At this time of the year, it wasn't exactly unusual. However, what was unusual was the fact that according to the university doctors, the young people were actually sick, and not playing guitar in the park or drinking fancy beers on the terraces of Bristol. Even a few teachers had caught the mysterious sickness.

The Doctor wouldn't have cared much, after all it was merely a cold and his students usually came back a few days later, but his curiosity was stronger than ever, as he had been stuck on Earth for a good sixty years.

As he had suspected, the virus was extraterrestrial. Nothing would make him suspect an attack, it was benign and mostly localised around the region of Bristol. Probably some tourists had brought the virus here with them, after all England was quite pretty at this time of the year. 

However, he also discovered something much more alarming : benign on humans, the virus was potentially lethal for Gallifreyans, as it mutated instantly in contact with the genes of regeneration. 

"How bad is it ?" Nardole asked with a squeaky voice of panic.

"Bad enough to destroy Gallifrey within a few months."

"It's terrible, what should we do ? We have to do something, Doctor."

"Well, for a start you can call the High Council and cancel my next golf week end with the President. Unless I am still the President. In that case I suppose I can play golf with myself."

"I'm being serious, here !" Nardole chastised him.

“It's okay, Gallifrey is hidden at the end of the universe, Time Lords won't get extinct because of a flu epidemic. That would be pretty ironic, though.”

“I am not kidding, sir.” 

“I've been in contact with humans for centuries, I'm probably immune to almost every pesky little virus.”

“If you say so. But what about your friend downstairs. May I remind you her immune system has been extremely weakened those last years. I doubt the fresh orange juice I serve her every morning will protect her against a potentially lethal disease.”

The Doctor froze instantly and Nardole realised with relief he had found the right argument. Missy was always the Doctor's weak point, and if he was honest with himself, she was also his. After all, when you spend decades taking care of someone, they end up being your first priority. 

“Can I be a healthy carrier ?” the cyborg asked 

“It's a possibility. However, your DNA can't make the virus mutate in its regenerative form.”

“Good. From now we have a solution.”

“Which is ?” the Doctor asked with a tinge of apprehension.

“The virus seems pretty weak in human hosts, which means the epidemic will probably be over in a month or so. You could isolate yourself in your TARDIS? But I don't trust you for a minute in that ship.”

“You have my dematerialisation circuit !” the Doctor protested.

“And you've got three spare ones, at least.” 

“You don't suggest...”

“I suggest exactly what you're thinking about. We've got a perfectly secure area at our disposition, already fully equipped for lockdown.”

The Doctor's eyes grew wide with horror.

“It's a terrible idea, and it's very unlike you to suggest it !”

“It is a very unlikely scenario” Nardole replied, completely unfased.

“That would disturb Missy's habits, and you know how she is when she's disturbed.”

“Missy will understand. Now let's move all your things down, a second bed of course... can you make a list, sir ?”

“So you're telling me there's a Time Lord killer virus outside and for a matter of death or life you have to stay confined with me in the Vault.” Missy asked with a frantic edge of excitement in her voice.

“Well, it was Nardole's idea.”

“I guess even a little egg can have great ideas sometimes !”

The Doctor approached Missy as he had finished walking around the large room. He had been there for over a little hour. This was going to be a long month.

“Can you please sit down ? You're making me dizzy.” Missy complained as she turned a page from her magazine.

“Sorry” the Doctor muttered gruffly. 

An hour later, the Time Lord was already bored beyond his limits. Missy, however, was still reading, a peaceful smile on her lips.

“How do you do that ?” he asked grudgingly.

“How do I do what ?” Missy asked with a calm and posed voice that made him even edgier. It was so hard for the Time Lady to hide her smug smile behind her precisely crafted nonchalant attitude.

“Survive in there.”

“I didn't know I had the choice”

“Okay, touché. But how do you stay sane ?”

“Since when am I sane ?”

“You know what I mean.”

Missy finally dropped the act and let out a little laugh.

“I'm serious, Missy. How do you cope with this ?”

The Time Lady rose up on her feet and stretched like a cat. She was wearing her usual Edwardian outfit, a bit of make up and had her hair in a messy updo. Everything about her was perfectly casual and normal. A normal day in Missy's life, and yet the Doctor was at his wit's end.

“It's a question of habit, dear.” 

“And how much time did it take ?”

“Approximately ten years.”

Missy giggled at the dejected look on the Doctor's face.

“But I can share a few tips if you want. Actually, I should write a manual about surviving in confinement.”

She didn't bother hiding her excitement now and the Doctor could see her twirling around, bouncing in anticipation like a child ready to make a class presentation.

“First, routine is important. I've been in quite a lot of prisons, you know. Really dreadful ones and also boring ones, especially here on Earth. Usually, the nicest prisons are the worst because fear and fight for survival take the boredom away. Oh, I'm not complaining, I like being pampered. Your little pets from UNIT were quite good at that, I must admit.”

Now, Missy was sprawled over one of the fancy armchairs at the far end of the room.

“Is it how it feels for you to be here ?” the Doctor asked “A nice prison ?”

Missy shrugged

“Isn't it was it is ?”

She must have had noticed the pained look on the Doctor's face because she corrected herself with an uncharacteristic sincerity that looked like a break in an elaborate rehearsal.

“Well, it's what I thought. But in the end, it feels more like being stuck at home. You are here almost everyday and you bring me a lot of treats. Also, I got kinda used to the little hobgoblin. He makes a good cup of tea and he acts like he actually cares about me. But shh, don't tell him I said that, he might think I actually like him.”

The Doctor smiled. Classic Master, unable to admit she had a liking for someone, even someone as close and familiar as Nardole.

“As I said, routine is the key. Any kind of routine : meals, programs on TV, little habits. Example, Nardole brings me breakfast at 9.30, I usually yell at him to bug off for the form, but it's quite a good hour that we ended up fixing from trials and errors after a few months. Sometimes I get up sooner and watch morning cartoons, but they tend to disappear with the Internet and Youtube. Another of the evils of the tiny screens over human culture. No more week end morning cartoons. Anyway, I'm rambling.”

She was now perched at the top of her piano, playing a few keys.

“I like to play a bit and tend to my plants in the morning. It's also the best time to tidy my room a bit. I love the dimentionally transcendent closets, by the way. Then comes lunch time, a little nap sometimes with a few episodes of my TV show of the moment. After that I do a bit of gym and I take a book until tea time.”

“You have a very balanced life style” the Doctor said with surprise.

“Routine and habits come naturally when you're locked up. But I must admit I am an agent of chaos and It didn't come easy to me. Got a bit of help from Nardole. He's surprisingly good at giving life advise. You should try and listen to him some times.”

“I'm not really surprised you cope so well. You were quite reclusive at the Academy, always with a book or imagining things in your head.”

Missy's eyes became vague.

“Maybe. Do you remember the Academy ?”

“Yes, of course ! You don't ?”

“My past is blurry, the CIA has messed a bit with my time line. Them and others, me included.”

“I don't think there's a single year of my youth that actually happened in this current reality” the Doctor answered.

“What about your childhood ?”

“Which one ? The one were I was loomed fully adult and raised in the House of Lungbarrow ? The one with my human mother and Time Lord father ? The one where Cardinal Braxiatel, of all Time Lords, is my brother ? Or the really weird other ones I'm gonna discover sooner or later because it's how my life works ?”

“All of them, I suppose. They're all your childhoods in the end, why should you pick ?”

“Okay, but what about them, then ?”

Missy got up on her feet and danced a little.

“Sometimes I remember the House of Oakdown. I'm pretty sure it's the place where I was born. Do you remember your House ?”

“Not really,” the Doctor said. “I never really returned there after I joined the Academy. Eight is such a young age, the brain is barely formed.”

“Strange place, the Houses on Gallifrey. Isolated microcosms, like TARDISes but unable to fly. They used to take care of their spawn like mother birds, and while the lucky ones were picked at the age of eight, some would stay for decades, sometimes centuries within their sentient walls.”

“It's the only reason that makes me happy I passed my tests for the Academy”

Missy made a non-concomitant noise as she inspected a little branch in her indoor garden.

“Sometimes this place makes me feel nostalgic.”

“What place ?” the Doctor asked, not certain of where the conversation was going.

“My Vault. Sometimes it reminds me of my old House. Except the furniture is normal sized, and the structure isn't sentient.”

“Then why does it remind you of your old House, then ?”

Missy stopped for a moment, staring at the upper gallery a she still caressed a new leaf on the branch.

“Don't you remember how it felt to be surrounded by all this giant furniture, unable to see past the field of red grass ? We all dreamed of what we would do once we would be Time Lords, we played games, reenacting all the ridiculous ceremonies with so much wonder in our minds. We didn't know what it was like outside of those walls. We yearned to move away, but in the same time, wasn't it a blessed time, to be so close to the Loom ?”

“You are in a poetic mood today, Missy. Should I understand that you are happy ?”

“Maybe. I'm not sure happy is the right word. Sedated, maybe ? Dimmed by similar days of cozy naps, solitary games and lecturing.”

“I never felt the presence of the Loom comforting. It was always here, like a looming presence.”

“Ha ha ! Bet you've dreamed of saying those words your whole life !”

“You have no idea” the Doctor replied with a little laugh in his voice. Missy winked, proud of having finally made Mr Grumpypants crack a smile.

“Being with you, it feels like being back to my House.”

“I'm sorry.”

“Don't be. When I'm in your arms, I know I'm where I belong. The past and future don't matter anymore. I forget my shame and regrets, and also my fears. I'm just here and now, and most important, I'm whole.”

The Doctor was now prancing around, avoiding Missy's look. The Time Lady bit her tongue, silently cursing herself and her big mouth. Why was it so easy to talk about her feelings when she felt this, content and safe ?

“Oh, Thete, I didn't meant to upset you.”

“You didn't. Really, what you said, it was beautiful. I just wish I had known before.”

“Known what ? How happy I feel around you ? Ain't I the most upbeat girl you've ever met ?”

“You certainly are upbeat, when you're not brooding.”

“I'm not the most stable person.” Missy admitted, puffing her cheeks in frustration.

“No, I meant, I wish I had knew about your childhood before. It's so silly, we've known each other since the Academy, and yet I never realised you had a life before.”

“Maybe you were too obsessed with running away from your own past. You weren't exactly happy in your House. I know what you did to them after you were disowned. Absolutely evil, even on my own standard.”

“I redeemed myself. At least I think I did. I'm pretty sure I saved them all in the end. At least the ones who didn't die in the Darkness.”

“And you abandoned them again, dying in the fires of the Time War.”

“Why are you so cruel, Missy ? If you want to know, I might have seen them again last time I came home. My past is so blurred I can't say if they were my Cousins or Shobogans or some lowly Gallifreyans forgotten by the mighty Time Lords, but they were by my side when I fought Rassilon the Loser.”

“I'm happy for you. Sincerely.”

The Doctor was now facing Missy. She looked meditative. 

“Do you miss Gallifrey ?”

“Je te demande pardon ? Who on their right mind would miss Gallifrey ? And I'm not even in my right mind. But it's true I've missed having a real friend and a place I can call home.”

The Doctor was now smiling like an idiot. By every star in the universe, Missy loved this smile. She loved him so much it almost hurt.

“Same, Missy, same” he said, allowing her to hug him, that wild little head of hers tugged under his chin. “I think I see what you mean about being a House. The two of us, we are our own House.”

“Two ?” Missy asked with a mocking gasp of shock. “How can you forget that little egg ?”

“Of course, Drudges are part of the House too” the Doctor said with an evil smile.

“Doctor ! You've lectured me for less than that !”

The two of them burst in a childlike laughter. 

“Doctor, may I remind you that you left the intercom open and I'm doing your job just outside of those doors” a grumpy voice echoed, fuzzy through the communication system.

The two Time Lords grinned silently like Academy students and Missy bounced without a warning out of the Doctor's arms.

“Catch me if you can, Mr President !”

“You won't escape me this time, Renegade !”


End file.
